Volunteers from across New Haven will gather in two weeks to welcome parents and families of incoming kindergartners to the New Haven Public Schools.

These volunteers will partner with New Haven Public School teachers, principals and other staff to walk door-to-door to homes of some of New Haven’s youngest residents just a few days before the children take the big step to kindergarten. At each home they will answer questions about the beginning of the school year and have conversations with the parents, guardians and caregivers about “The ART of School Success.”

Studies show that parents are key to ensuring that students are successful in school and that steps taken by parents in early years translate to future success in school. The ART of School Success focuses on what research shows makes the biggest difference: Attending school every day, Reading together for 20 minutes every day, and making sure to put time aside to Talk to your child every day. The city-wide kindergarten canvass will help families start off right and grow an even better New Haven.

Training will be provided to all volunteers, with additional information after registration. For information or questions about volunteering, please contact Joshua Mamis at jmamis@uwgnh.org or call 203-772-2010.

The city-wide kindergarten canvass is a collaborative effort between the City of New Haven, New Haven Public Schools, United Way of Greater New Haven, Boost!, and New Haven Promise.

The Arts Council of Greater New Haven will hold an artists’ reception Tuesday, July 10, for its exhibition of works by Maria Morabito and Lambert Edelmann. The public is invited to attend.

The reception and exhibit are at Gallery 195 at First Niagara Bank, 195 Church St., 4th floor, New Haven. The exhibition will be on display during bank hours through Sept. 14 (Monday-Wednesday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.; Thursday and Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.).

Morabito finds inspiration in biochemical processes in the brain, as well as the history of written documentation. Edelmann studies the struggle between building and decay, destruction to seek control, domination of nature by civilizations, and domination of cultures by other cultures.

Morabito creates paintings and monoprints often using a limited palette to direct focus on the signs and symbols that make up the compositions. These streamlined, graphic works convey the themes of expression and communication through the rhythm of forms, textures and colors.

“Handwriting is a very special and individual mark of our existence – sometime the only thing that is left behind. The deconstruction of words into signs and their free assemblage lead me to a visual imagery that preserves the link to the past and projects into the future,” said Morabito of her work.

Edelmann’s work is also very graphic compositionally. His inspiration comes, in part, from the millennia of old geometric patterns in Islamic art, along with the duality which he sees as a civilization both dominating and dominated. Going off these ancient patterns, he uses alterations of line and color to distort the rigid designs in an attempt to express the struggle of cultural growth.

Lambert Edelmann studied printmaking at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and at Boston Printmakers. He has also studied oil painting in Cambridge, Mass., and sculpture at Creative Arts Workshop in New Haven. He was born and raised in Germany, has a doctorate and studied neurobiology at Yale. He lives and works in Boston, and has his studio in New Haven, where he is part of the Erector Square art community and a member of The Arts Council of Greater New Haven.

Maria Morabito has been featured in exhibitions in galleries and cultural centers, including the Grossman Gallery of the School Museum of Fine Arts in Boston; the City Gallery, the Erector Square Gallery and Artspace in New Haven; and the Moira Fitzsimmons Arons Art Gallery in Hamden. Maria Morabito was born in Reggio Calabria, Italy.

For more information about this exhibition and Gallery 195 at First Niagara Bank, call the Arts Council at (203) 772-2788. The Arts Council of Greater New Haven, publisher of The Arts Paper, is a regional nonprofit arts agency that provides leadership to and advocates for member artists and arts organizations and connects them to one another, to audiences, and to the Greater New Haven community. Visit the Arts Council online at newhavenarts.org.

The Madison ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints holds a 5K road race each year and has raised enough to donate 45,000 pounds of food in eight years to feed the hungry.

An edited press release from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Every year in April, members of the Madison, Conn., Ward (congregation) of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) host a 5K Feed the Need Race to gather non-perishable food donations for area food kitchens.

In eight years, they have gathered and donated 45,000 pounds of food. The annual event at Connecticut’s Hammonasset State Park and Beach in Madison began in 2005 and has grown steadily each year. People come from across the state, and beyond, to run for the cause. The suggested entry “fee” is 25 cans or items of non-perishable food per runner. The donations have kept more than one area food pantry going which otherwise would have had to close down.

Jacque Rollins, member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Madison Ward, has spearheaded the event every year. “From the beginning,” says Rollins, “we’ve seen our race grow from less than 100 participants, mostly from our own congregation, to nearly 500 from all over the world. Sadly, as our numbers have grown, so has the need at local food pantries. We know our race keeps individuals and families from facing hunger and food insecurity in our little corner of Connecticut, and that is a wonderful feeling.”

NEW HAVEN — The Knights of Columbus announced today that it set new records for charitable donations and volunteer service hours in 2011.

Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson released the results of the Roman Catholic fraternal organization’s annual survey in a presentation to its board of directors and state leaders, meeting June 6-10 at its international headquarters.

The results of the K of C’s Annual Survey of Fraternal Activity for 2011 indicate that total charitable contributions reached $158,084,514 — exceeding the previous year’s total by more than $3.4 million. The figure includes $29,183,386 donated by the Supreme Council and $128,901,128 in contributions from the organization’s state and local affiliates. Overall contributions increased for the 12th consecutive year.

Large donations during the period included $7.5 million in support of priestly and religious vocations, $3.6 million for Special Olympics, $515,000 for the organization’s Coats for Kids program and continuing support of a joint program with Project Medishare to provide prosthetics to Haitian children who lost limbs during the January 2010 earthquake.

The survey also indicated that the quantity of volunteer service hours to charitable causes by Knights grew to 70,053,149 — an increase of 3,716 hours compared to the 2010 total. At a national average value of $21.79 per service hour, according to Independent Sector, the total value of the Knights’ service hours last year exceeds $1.5 billion.

Among the service programs receiving significant K of C volunteer hours were the Coats for Kids project, Special Olympics and the Global Wheelchair Mission.

There were also more than 418,000 K of C blood donations during the year.

Cumulative figures show that, during the past decade, the Knights of Columbus has donated $1.406 billion to charity, and provided more than 653 million hours of volunteer service in support of charitable initiatives.

“At a time when many in our communities continue to experience economic hardship, the increasing charitable work of the Knights of Columbus is a testament to the power of love of neighbor and to the great things that can be done by those committed to the common good,” Anderson said.

The Knights of Columbus was founded by Father Michael J. McGivney, a New Haven parish priest, in 1882. It has grown into the world’s largest lay Catholic organization, with more than 1.8 million members throughout North and Central America, the Philippines, the Caribbean and Poland.

HAMDEN — For the past year, “Dinner for a Dollar,” the Friday night dinner ministry of Grace and St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, has served a warm, nutritious meal, in a welcoming environment, to all members of the greater Hamden community once every week for a suggested donation of $1.

Dinner for a Dollar is organized by Allison Batson, a parishioner at Grace and St. Peter’s. The program started last year with the guidance of the Rev. Matt Lincoln, rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church, North Haven, and Joan Hunt, community supper coordinator at St. John’s.

Grace and St. Peter’s parishioners not only cook the meals but also attend the weekly dinners, to serve as hosts to our guests from the outlying community, providing fellowship during the meal. All people are welcome, all people are accepted, and all people are treated with dignity.

The meals are cooked in the church kitchen by volunteer members of the parish, who plan the menu, shop for the food, and prepare and serve it. This dinner ministry fills a void for many of the people from the broader community. Many experience financial poverty and the poverty of loneliness, in a community where poverty of any kind is usually hidden.

Dinner for a Dollar feeds about 35 people a week, most of whom are non-parishioners. Many people, from different walks of life, come every week and look forward to this opportunity for a warm, home-cooked meal and the company of others at the dinner each Friday night. Some live in the nearby subsidized senior housing. Some are homeless and/or very poor. Some people come who are financially comfortable, but simply enjoy the food or being with other people at the dinner, or perhaps just receiving a meal without having to cook or do dishes.

A solid community is building up around this weekly meal, with people looking forward to seeing each other week to week, and many, including non-parishioners, taking on roles of extending hospitality to others.

Grace and St. Peter’s wants to thank everyone, volunteers and diners alike, for making this program such a great success and welcomes the whole community to join in the weekly dinners.

EAST HAVEN – Connecticut Food Bank’s 2012 Walks Against Hunger in Bridgeport, New Haven and Waterbury have raised more than $250,000 for hunger-relief efforts in Connecticut. Nearly 2,000 walkers participated in the three walks in late April and May.

The money raised will enable Connecticut Food Bank to transport, warehouse and distribute more than $1.2 million of food at wholesale value for local community agencies such as soup kitchens, shelters, food pantries and adult and child day programs.

“We are grateful to the walkers, donors and sponsors for helping to make 2012 our most successful walk season to date,” said Nancy L. Carrington, Connecticut Food Bank president and CEO. “The support from individuals, businesses, schools, food pantries, civic groups and clubs is overwhelming and will go a long way to help those who struggle to put food on the table every day.”

In Connecticut, more than half of the people who are at risk of hunger do not qualify for federal food assistance and many rely on Connecticut Food Bank’s member programs for help. In Connecticut Food Bank’s service area, more than 300,000 people are food insecure, which means they do not always know where their next meal is coming from.

Connecticut Food Bank serves approximately 600 local emergency food assistance programs in six of Connecticut’s eight counties: Fairfield, Litchfield, Middlesex, New Haven, New London and Windham. Connecticut Food Bank distributes an average of 33 tons of food every business day.

EAST HAVEN — Summer is a time of high anxiety for low-income families, who must provide 200 extra meals for each child when school is not in session.

To help make a difference in the lives of these children, The Farmer’s Cow is donating a half gallon of milk to Connecticut Food Bank — up to 5,000 gallons during the months of July and August — for every four electronic greeting cards that are emailed to help spread the word about the problem of summer hunger.

Contrary to what many people believe, the highest demand for food assistance to hungry families is during the summer. “The number of children who have little or no food during the summer months is alarming,” said Nancy L. Carrington, Connecticut Food Bank’s president and CEO. “Nearly one out of every five children in Connecticut is at risk of hunger, which is more than 109,000 children in Connecticut Food Bank’s service area. We are grateful to The Farmer’s Cow for helping us provide hungry children with nutritious milk.”

Summer also is the time of year when food donations are at their lowest, which makes the situation for hungry families even more difficult.

Upon learning about the problem of summer hunger, The Farmer’s Cow, a group of six Connecticut family-owned dairy farms, wanted to do something to help hungry Connecticut families who are dealing with the difficulty of keeping food on the table during the summer months.

“Children should be having fun in the summer, running and playing in the outdoors, not feeling hungry. We want to help Connecticut Food Bank spread the word about the problem of summer hunger, but, even more so, we want to help prevent hunger by providing fresh, local milk to children who can enjoy it,” said Robin Chesmer, managing member of The Farmer’s Cow. “We encourage others to remind their friends and family about their neighbors’ struggle with summer hunger, and help Connecticut children who should be enjoying their summer vacation without feeling hungry.”

Connecticut Food Bank serves about 600 local emergency food assistance programs in six of Connecticut’s eight counties: Fairfield, Litchfield, Middlesex, New Haven, New London and Windham. Connecticut Food Bank distributes an average of 33 tons of food every business day.

The Farmer’s Cow is a group of six Connecticut dairy farms that produces fresh, local milk, half and half, heavy cream and ice cream for southern New England. The Farmer’s Cow dairy products are pasteurized the “traditional way” and are never ultra‐pasteurized. The members of The Farmer’s Cow do not use artificial growth hormones (rBST) on any of their cows. They also sell Connecticut‐sourced, all‐natural eggs, apple cider, and seasonal beverages. The Farmer’s Cow’s mission is to promote Connecticut agriculture and show that “Local is Fresh!” For more information visit www.TheFarmersCow.com or call 866-355‐COWS.

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ConnecticutNewspapers.Org is a program of Journal Register Company newspapers in Connecticut aimed at supporting nonprofit organizations and charitable causes in the state. For more information, contact New Haven Register Community Engagement Editor Ed Stannard at estannard@nhregister.com or 203-789-5743.